The funny things they say.

It's been awhile since I had my 9th graders in class; the last weeks we met before Christmas were for a practice, and then a Living Rosary in church for Our Lady of Guadeloupe. (We lit the candles they held for each recitation until the church was a circle of light. It looked pretty; the kids liked holding the fire, I think).

Tonight, I gave them a quick pop quiz, mostly to find out where they were -- some went to Catholic grade school, some didn't. Some attend church on Sunday; some don't. Being freshmen, and this my first year teaching, the "theme" mostly is incorporating our faith teachings into their Monday through Friday lives. It's a tough age, and they come from 2 nearby public high schools, so I'm content to let them often steer the discussions, sharing what's going on in their lives and worlds. They need time to talk together like that about spiritual things, I think; they're good kids all. Still, I thought it best to make sure they were learning something related to our religion.

I have them write a brief essay each week, just a few paragraphs -- good practice for the standardized tests surely, forming topic sentences and supporting detail. Tonight I asked them to share one moment over Christmastime when they felt the presence of the Holy Spirit with them -- something special that stood out; interpret it broadly. Then I had them turn their papers over, and asked a few basic questions and we talked about the answers. (ie/ "What ethnicity was Jesus?" "What does it mean when we talk about the Trinity?" and the million-dollar question whose word I even spelled out on the board, "What is Transubstantiation?") They impressed me with their answers; I think it throws some at that age -- who have been to their friends' bar mitzvahs and think in more modern day labels -- to comprehend Jesus was a Jew.

The easy opening question drew a laugh in our discussion afterward. I said, "I can think of at least 3 Mary's in the Bible. Name 2." (Kids like to be quizzed actually, they're all competitive in that way.) Of course, the mother of Jesus was a given. And I was thinking about Mary and Martha, the latter who busied herself preparing food while the former sat with Jesus listening to his stories. Maybe coming so soon after the holidays, they thought it was pretty much a balancing act -- they understood that the better choice was to spend the precious time with him, but then they could also see the point of view, "Hey, Jesus is in your house. Of course you want to prepare him a nice meal."

The third -- Mary Magdalene -- is the one from the Easter morning story. The early riser who went to the tomb, saw the rock rolled away, and came back to report to the men what she had seen. Putting themselves in her shoes, I don't think she knew then necessarily that he had risen, despite the clues Jesus had earlier given them. Probably it was racing through her mind, "could be grave robbers, how'd they get that rock moved, etc." We talked about the burial in caves procedure; one wanted to know if everybody got his own cave, or if they shared. Rational minds grappling with detail.

I didn't much follow the DaVinci Code myself, so I think of that Mary more as the one who carried the news on Easter morning -- a fine role, really. So when they identified her, and I asked them what role Mary Magdalene played in the Bible, that's kind of what I was going for. So when one answered, "She was the prostitute", I said "Right... but what's the word we want to include before that?" I was thinking "ex-" or "reformed", "repentant". Slightly different wavelengths though ... a pause, and in a questioning tone, "a holy prostitute?"

Thanks, Charlie. For a good honest laugh, and then I told him what word I was thinking of...