To print, download this activity as a Word document.
You'll need:
- copies of paragraph 814 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, either printed on a poster for all to see, or on individual handouts. Here is the paragraph: From the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes from both the variety of God's gifts and the diversity of those who receive them. Within the unity of the People of God, a multiplicity of peoples and cultures is gathered together. Among the Church's members, there are different gifts, offices, conditions, and ways of life. "Holding a rightful place in the communion of the Church there are also particular Churches that retain their own traditions." The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to the Church's unity. Yet sin and the burden of its consequences constantly threaten the gift of unity. And so the Apostle has to exhort Christians to "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." CCC 814
- a Bible with 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11 marked
- a reader chosen ahead of time who has practiced reading aloud 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11
- a chalk or white board or large easel and pad of paper
Optional: Ask participants to bring ethnic treats: desserts that represent their own ethnic heritage or background.
Step-by-step
- Go around the group and have each person complete this statement: "I am a _______ - American," filling in the blank with as many ancestral heritages as he or she knows. For example, "I am a Polish-German-Swedish American." If someone doesn't know exactly, let him or her say "I am a European-American," or "I am an African-American."
- Discuss: How close are you to your roots? What customs from your original ethnicity do you know/still keep?
- Discuss: What is meant by the term "melting pot"? It's often said that the United States is a melting pot, because here many different cultures blend together to create something new. Is this true? Why or why not?
- Ask someone to record the following discussion by writing suggestions from the discussion in the appropriate columns.
- Make two columns on the board or easel pad. Write in one column "melting pot" and in the other "salad bar." Discuss: What's the difference between a melting pot and a salad bar? [Hint: What happens to all the ingredients if you melt them into a single soup? What happens to the individual ingredients of the salad when you put them in the same bowl?] Ask the recorder to list these ideas in the appropriate columns.
- Discuss: Do people of all cultures who come to the United States "melt" their customs and traditions into a mainstream "American soup" or do some keep their customs and add them like ingredients in a salad? Which groups are melting pot and which are salad bar? Recorder may list them in the appropriate column.
- Discuss: What are the advantages of the melting pot? The salad bar? What are the disadvantages of each?
- Read together paragraph 814 of the Catechism.
- Ask the recorder to continue taking notes for the group. Brainstorm: List the diversity of nations and cultures from which Catholics come.
- Brainstorm: List the diversity of gifts that God gives people in the church.
- Brainstorm: List the different ways of life that Catholics live. [Hint: Think about priests, nuns, married people, single people.]
- Discuss: Why is diversity a gift from God? What purpose does it serve?
- Take a moment of silence.
- The reader reads 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11.
- Take another moment of silence.
- Go around the group and have each one say what line or phrase or word from reading sticks out to him or her.
- Ask if anyone has other questions or anything else to say about diversity. If not, you're done!
- If you opted to bring different ethnic treats, share them now.
