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2025 EASTER SEASON: Reflection Guides & Resources Available Now!
www.missioninstitute.maryknoll.us
For more information, contact Jackie Hopper,
our National Teacher Catechist Outreach Team Member
and Mission Educator Promoter at jhopper@maryknoll.org
OVERVIEW
The Missionary Discipleship Institute (MDI) is a year-long 3-part faith and outreach experience which provides a framework for students to encounter God in their lives and the lives of their neighbors on the margins and gain awareness of injustices that they face; reflect on how the Church is responding in love and the disturbance this creates in our own sense of discipleship; and discern, develop, and carry out a response rooted in God's mission.
Development
This program was developed in partnership with Missions Office and Office for Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Seattle, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, and the Poverty Education Center at Seattle University.
Basis of the MDI
The program includes three basic learning phases, divided into units. Each unit contains three to five lessons, with suggested extensions to teach to Catholic School national standards.
Unit One Encountering Jesus
Who is my neighbor? With whom does Jesus walk?
(ENCOUNTER/Advent)
During this foundational phase, students recognize the presence of God’s love in their lives, and that Jesus is active in their lives today. They research the life and actions of Jesus through Gospel stories, as well as the lives of people living on the margins today and how issues of injustice affect them, locally and globally. As a class, students discern a single topic to address as a community of missionary disciples. This unit includes an immersion experience.
Link to Immersion Lesson Plans here.
Unit Two Who is showing love to my neighbor? How does Jesus show love?
(DISTURBANCE/Lent)
Students reflect on Jesus’ actions in the world. They also assess local and global case studies of various Catholic organizations and communities in loving relationships of missionary discipleship with people living on the margins with tools from Redemptoris Missio and other Church teachings. Students continue the research on the issue that the class chose in Phase One. They discern possible actions for their missionary service response.
Unit Three: How am I called to love my neighbor? How is Jesus inviting us to act?
(RESPONSE/Pentecost)
In this final phase, students invite a deeper relationship with Jesus through discernment into action to carry out their plans for the missionary discipleship response. Students reflect on the experience and share information with others in school and the larger community.
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For more information:
Contact our National Teacher Catechist Outreach Team Member at jhopper@maryknoll.org
LESSON MATERIALS
Seattle Archdiocese
2024-2025 Calendar
Seattle curriculum as one document
Link to the Year-Long Standards Outline
MDI Unit one Reflection on the 5 Topics
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Chicago Archdiocese
Chicago Orientation Day PowerPoint
See, Judge, Act Methodology PPT
Chicago curriculum as one document
RESOURCES
What They Taught Us Reflections
As a tool for ongoing reflection, Maryknoll offers a free online companion guide for the Orbis book What They Taught Us: How Maryknoll Missioners Were Evangelized by the Poor.
Resources on Issues Facing People on the Margins
The MDI asks students to research five topic areas related to the life and health of people around the world, and select one to which they feel called to respond. Resources provided around these topic areas include:
Reflection activities that invite students to consider more deeply these issues through the lens of their faith and life experience
Links to research sites where students can find information on each topic
Summaries of the five topic areas with connections to Catholic Social Teaching and links to community responses
Case studies of how Maryknoll missioners, Catholic Relief Services, and others are responding to each topic area in love and faith
Extension Racial Justice Lesson Plans with connections between racial justice and our faith traditions and stories.
Rubric for Missionary Discipleship
This rubric can be used by both students and teachers to assess missionary discipleship activity. It is also the basis for how students plan their response.
Other Resources:
Mission Saints organized by month
Video:
Examples:
Reflections from Participants:
Watch this video of students reflecting on what the MDI meant to them.
Read these PowerPoints from Seattle and Chicago schools of how they implemented MDI in a school year.
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