Joanna Coleiro, fsp
This issue of Echoing the Word is dedicated to exploring contemporary ways of encountering and teaching the virtues. Together with you in your parish or school context, we seek relevant ways to speak about these essential ‘tools’ for developing the Christian life and to equip our young people with the resources they need to engage with the world. Rev. Gerald Gleeson’s feature article is a valuable starting place for renewing our own understanding of the virtues and identifying their relevance for our lives today.

Antoinette Collins breaks open St Paul's letter to the Galatians, a community beset by dispute and division. Antoinette highlights Paul's call to live in the Spirit and the virtues which flow from such Christian living.

Beth Nolen invites students to keep their eye out for particular virtues being lived today. An engaging activity that can be used throughout the year.

Jennifer Callanan offers a ready-to-use ritual for the classroom celebrating the virtue of Christian love.

Mark Beatty's activity invites students to reflect on the theological virtues - faith, hope and love.

Clare Horan offers an excellent activity that challenges students to apply the four cardinal virtues to four hypothetical scenarios. This activity will suit secondary school students in particular, asking them to think through the virtues as enabling good choices in the real world.

Jennifer Callanan provides an activity that reflects on the life of Professor Mick Dodson, the Australian of the Year for 2009. Students are invited to reflect on Professor Dodson as a model of someone living a virtuous life.

Jennifer Callanan offers an activity for the end of the school day, a reflection that links the virtue of hope with the students’ day. This reflection assists students to recognise that hope is not an empty dreaming.

Beth Nolen offers a comprehensive activity on the Christian virtues. Beth includes 'virtue cards' aimed to help students define and understand each of the virtues, a small group dramatisation and a question sheet to consider virtues in the context of contemporary life.

Tony Densley reflects on the challenge of schooling children in virtue, the often opposing values that can pervade children's world, and how virtues can encourage us all to become people of character.

Jan Grajczonek reviews three children's titles, Ella Sets the Stage, Crow and the Waterhole and Home and Away. These texts explore the themes of resilience and perseverance, role models and mentors, and the reality of war and the need for hope.

Paul Taouk review religious education resources including Children Discover the Mass, an invaluable resource for introducing the parts of the Mass. Also reviewed are The Folly of God: They Journey of the Cross featuring the artwork of Sieger Koder, and the recently released DVD, World Youth Day Sydney 2008: Stations of the Cross.

Ann Maree Whenman provides catechists with the principles of moral formation in the Christian virtues. Ann Maree notes the importance of the catechist as model of the virtues and suggests some age-appropriate ways in which to engage children in this process of inner tranformation.

Ann Maree Whenman asks the question 'How do I present the faith to those I teach in a loving, pleasant way, and yet maintain discipline?' A helpful guide to effective teaching in the classroom or parish.

Jan Grajczonek discusses ways in which educators can engage students in a values' education. Jan emphasises the importance of good teacher-student relationships and suggests an activity that will assist younger students to reflect on their changing values and become conscious of their own growth.

Stuart Baker reflects on how students can come to know the virtuous lives they are called to in ways that makes use of their lived experiences and uses their signs, symbols and language. Stuart suggests creative and innovative ways of drawing upon a range of media to foster meaning-making and understanding of the Christian virtues.

Peter Arndt draws on the 2008 Social Justice Sunday Statement of the Australian Bishops Conference and provides an activity that encourages students to consider how the virtues might be applied to aspects of affluence and poverty in our nation. Peter also includes a prayer activity that teachers will find useful on this topic.

Daniel Ang reviews four web resources including an excellent site on Catholic Social teaching, an innovative and impressive site on religious architecture, and an information site on the Restraint Project, a project that seeks to examine and recover a notion of restraint in Australian society.