The Young Women of Grace program is just over a year old and, thanks to the creativity and generosity of women leaders, is finding its way into a variety of settings which now include CCD classes.

Alicia McDermott, a certified CCD teacher for the Archdiocese of Miami, introduced Young Women of Grace to the pre-Confirmation CCD curriculum at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in Pompano Beach, Florida. Her class, which was comprised of girls ages 13 to 15, began the first of a two-year pre-Confirmation curriculum in September of 2016 and ended in the spring of 2017.

“We followed the pre-Confirmation curriculum and I adapted the study as we went along,” Alicia explained. “For example, I wanted the girls to know who they were so we started with Chapter One, then introduced the girls to prayer in Chapter Two. But by then we were approaching Advent and we needed to address Reconciliation, so I jumped ahead to Chapter 7.”

Chapter 7, entitled, “Resurrection: Made New for the Abundant Life,” is all about healing. Some facilitators say girls at this age are primarily struggling with forgiveness issues, but Alicia found that her girls were also struggling with the examination of conscience.

“They were never exposed to the examination of conscience,” she said. “I used the examination of conscience that I learned in the Women of Grace study and told the girls not to answer out loud but to think about it internally. But they all started answering out loud!”

This revealed to her that the girls in her class were well-aware of the dangers faced by girls their age, such as drug use, porn, even cutting themselves.

“We had good discussions that brought us from Chapter 7 to the last chapter, which is all about carrying out our mission,” Alicia said.

They also read Chapter 6, which is based on the Eucharist, which the girls learned how to use for healing and strength.

From there they read Chapter 5 which made a special impact on the girls because this material deals with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

“We had only one hour and 15 minutes for each class so one lesson could take three weeks to complete,” Alicia said.

There was no homework because they did most of the reading in class.

They also used all of the suggested activities in the Facilitator/Teacher’s Guide.

Favorites were the gifts of Mary and the introductory interviews where girls are paired off and each interview each other.

“They loved that!”

They also completed the exercise on Page 2 of the Study Guide entitled, “A Little Bit About Me” where girls list their name, birthday, favorite saint, the person they trust the most, their hopes for the future.

“When we did this, I took a picture of each girl and put the picture in their books,” Alicia said.

The same page asks the girls to list the virtue they struggle with the most.

“Some of them didn’t’ even know what a virtue was,” Alicia explained.

She decided to write the virtues on slips of paper and put them in a box for the girls to pick each week.

“They had to work on that virtue during the week, figure out what it was and how to use it.”

The girls also made name tags. “They were cute,” Alicia said. “I bought stickers and other things to decorate the tags. Everybody had to make one. And inside the name tag they would write down their virtue for the week.”

She also had a prayer box available where girls could write their intentions on a piece of paper and put it in the box. Alicia would pray for these intentions during the week, which helped to forge a bond between herself and her students.

When her students return in the fall of 2017, they will begin their second and final year of pre-Confirmation study, which is known as the sacramental year. She will have half of the year to finish the Young Women of Grace study before moving on to the girls’ final preparation before receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation.

“It’s so beautiful because when we meet again in September, the girls will be choosing their confirmation saint and they have been exposed to so many saints in this program,” Alicia said.

She also found numerous YouTube clips on the saints which the girls loved.

Alicia discovered that one of the many beauties of the Young Women of Grace program is how adaptable it is. Not only can the study be used inside and outside of the classroom, it’s also very adaptable to the ingenuity and creativity of the women who choose to lead it!

Click here to bring Young Women of Grace to your girls!

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