Assessment

Essay 60% + Classroom participation 10% + Attendance 10% + Group Project/ Reflection Pieces 20%

Module Aims

To introduce the participants to an understanding of the role, meaning and function of sacramental and liturgical celebrations in Christianity and especially in the Catholic Church. Beginning with the core theological category of the worshipping community as the Church, the module will explore how the Church is made manifest in its liturgical activity. Developing the learners understanding of sacramentality, the module will study the nature and mission of the Church, before treating sacramentality and the specific seven sacraments in the life of the Christian community. Seeing liturgy as central to the life of the Church, some basic ideas on symbol, ritual and language will provide an opportunity to study liturgical space and time before offering a final synthesis of understanding the sacraments as actions of Christ and the Church.

Indicative Syllabus

• Defining liturgy, worship and ritual? Understanding sacrament as grounded in the Church.
• Language, symbol, and ritual communication.
• The origins and development of Christian liturgy. What is a Rite?
• Sacraments: Events of Christ and the Church
• The Sacraments of Christian Initiation
• Liturgy in Space and Time – The Liturgical Year
• Liturgy, Sacraments and the Classroom

Learning Outcomes

• — MIMLO01: Integrate the aims and rationale of religious education and catechesis in the planning and execution of the spiritual and liturgical life of the primary school under Catholic patronage.
• — MIMLO02: Demonstrate a knowledge of sacramental and liturgical theology.
• — MIMLO03: Display knowledge of the basis of sacraments and liturgy in ritual, symbol and myth and language.
• — MIMLO04: Display a comprehensive knowledge of prayer in the life of the Church and its role in the primary school under Catholic patronage.
• — MIMLO05: Display competent and practical knowledge in assisting children in their sacramental preparation.
• — MIMLO06: Display a competent knowledge around the construction of prayers service, Sacred Spaces and other areas of the liturgical life of the primary school under Catholic patronage.

Bibliography

• — Gail Ramshaw, Christian Worship. 100,000 Sundays of Symbols and Rituals (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009).
• — Adolf Adam, Foundations of Liturgy (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992).
• — Paul F. Bradshaw, ed., The New SCM Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship (London: SCM, 2002).
• — Massimo Faggioli, True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press [Pueblo Books], 2012) 
• — John D. Laurance, The Sacrament of the Eucharist (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2012).
• — Nathan D. Mitchell, Meeting Mystery: Liturgy, Worship, Sacraments, Theology in Global Perspective series (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007).
• — Frank C. Senn, Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997).
• — Frank Senn, The People’s Work: A Social History of the Liturgy (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006).
• — Geoffrey Wainwright & Karen Westerfield-Tucker, eds., The Oxford History of Christian Worship (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).
• — Irish Episcopal Conference, Grow in Love – Religious Education Programme for Primary School under Catholic Patronage.