It’s another exciting year for the Holy Trinity Catholic School Division in Moose Jaw! This year, Holy Trinity has decided to present each of our Grade 4 students with their very own Catholic Youth Bible. Traditionally, we have given our students a New Testament Bible, but we wanted them to have a complete and full Bible. After much research, we chose The Catholic Youth Bible NRSV Catholic Edition.
The Catholic Youth Bible, published by St. Mary’s Press, is a beautiful resource for our young students. It welcomes them “into the grace of God’s Word, with a full-color design and features that show the depth and beauty of every passage,” as St. Mary’s website declares. It truly lives up to this description.
Each elementary school in our division held a special Grade 4 Bible presentation, which included having the Bibles blessed by our division priests and a short liturgy. This ceremony emphasized how special these Bibles are and encouraged students to take good care of them. For some students, this may become their family Bible. The priests reminded the students that their Bibles are now blessed and should be handled with care.
Watching the Grade 4 students carefully open their Bibles after the blessing was a special moment. They admired the beauty of the Bibles and loved the pictures inside. Many students expressed their gratitude and excitement to dive into their new Bibles!
All Grade 4 classes will have lessons with Division Chaplain Lisa Busta about their new Bibles. These lessons will focus on Bible Basics: Who wrote the Bible? How is it organized? How is the Bible the Word of God? How is the Bible the story of our salvation?
We will ask our students to bring their Bibles to school each year in the fall, as they will use them from Grade 4 to Grade 12 in their Religion and Catholic Studies classes. They will be able to take their Bibles with them throughout their educational journey, using and referencing them in many ways, truly making them their own. We hope to continue this practice of presenting a full Bible to our Grade 4 students in the future.
As Saint John Baptist de La Salle, Patron Saint of Teachers, tells us, “Let your chief study be the Sacred Scriptures.”
May God bless our students and their new Catholic Youth Bibles!
;
