Curriculum

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Called to Be More

“Scope & Sequence” Theology of the Body curriculum grades 9-12

COURSE 1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ in Scripture 

The first course seeks to answer fundamental questions through the lens of Theology of the Body, focusing on the implications of our intrinsic relationality and the gift of the covenant between God and His creation. 

Lesson 1: Who is St. John Paul II? 

Learn about the man who wrote Theology of the Body and how his life experiences shaped his ability to articulate the Church’s teachings. 

Lesson 2: Why does God reveal Himself? 

Focus on the Trinity as eternal Love and eternal Gift and on God’s desire to reveal Himself to His creation. 

Lesson 3: How does God reveal Himself? 

Highlight how the body-soul unity of the human person is linked to the way in which God reveals Himself out of love. 

Lesson 4: Genesis 1-2 

Explore foundational questions about Scriptural interpretation and the relationship between science and theology in order to take a fresh look at Genesis 1-2. 

Lesson 5: Marital Imagery in Scripture 

Reveal how God’s love is communicated using marital imagery throughout Scripture, culminating in the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Bridegroom. 

Lesson 6: Jesus Christ Reveals Man to Himself 

Focus on the words of Gaudium et Spes 22:1, “Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.” 

Lesson 7: Prayer 

Identify prayer as relational and covenantal, highlighting how prayer enables us to discover who we truly are. 

 

COURSE 2 Who is Jesus Christ? 

The second course continues defining fundamental concepts, particularly those related to discovering the true identity of the human person, keeping in mind that “Jesus Christ reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (GS 22:1). 

Lesson 1: Jesus Christ and Revelation 

With the example of the woman at the well in John 4, explore how Jesus reveals Himself in a personal way. 

Lesson 2: The Trinity 

Describe the “logic” of the Trinity and how the divine Communion of Persons reveals who the human person is created and called to be. 

Lesson 3: Receiving Life as a Gift 

Cultivate wonder at having been created in God’s image and likeness with the capacity for intellect, will and the call to love. 

Lesson 4: Love 

Define love as willing the true good of the beloved. 

Lesson 5: Sexual Difference: Visible Sign of Love 

Explore the significance and meaning of being created either male or female. 

Lesson 6: Femininity 

Affirming complementarity, highlight woman’s unique role as daughter, sister, bride and mother. 

Lesson 7: Masculinity 

Affirming complementarity, highlight man’s unique role as son, husband and father. 

Lesson 8: Friendship 

Express how friendships can be transformed when we begin to understand who the human person truly is. 

Lesson 9: Suffering 

Reflect on the meaning of suffering and how Jesus Christ transforms this human experience into one linked with love and fruitfulness. 

 

COURSE 3 The Mission of Jesus Christ (The Paschal Mystery) 

The third course begins exploring the three phases of the human person in Theology of the Body – Original Man, Historical Man and Eschatological Man – all three of which are based on the words of Christ in the Gospels. 

Lesson 1: Creation 

Focus on the creation narratives in Genesis 1-2, while keeping in mind the question, “Who am I?” 

Lesson 2: The Original Experiences 

Highlight the three “original experiences” that the first man and woman and every human person experience, providing a pattern for what it means to be human. 

Lesson 3: The Fall 

Examine Genesis 3 and what it teaches us about the Fall, original sin and our current state of humanity. 

Lesson 4: Historical Man 

Reflect on how Jesus Christ calls, not accuses, the human heart to greatness, even in the face of sin. 

Lesson 5: Dignity of the Human Person 

Articulate the incredible dignity of the human person, based on who one is not what one does. 

Lesson 6: Dignity with Disabilities 

Note that disabilities do not remove one’s dignity, and in fact, that such situations teach us all about what it means to be a creature. 

Lesson 7: Dignity and Dating 

Explain that chastity involves authentically loving and treating others as they deserve and explore the implications of this for dating relationships. 

Lesson 8: Eschatological Man (Eternity)

Examine how the resurrection of the body reveals the dignity of the human person. 

 

COURSE 4 Jesus Christ’s Mission Continues in the Church 

The fourth course explores the spousal meaning of the body and how this call to love is revealed in every man and woman, in the family and in the Church, who is the Body and Bride of Christ. 

Lesson 1: The Church as Bride 

Focusing on Ephesians 5, delineate what it means that the Church is the Bride of Christ. 

Lesson 2: The Spousal Meaning of the Body 

Explain the spousal meaning of the body as the call to love and a reminder that every human person is created to be a gift. 

Lesson 3: Femininity and Masculinity 

Explore how femininity and masculinity reveal the spousal meaning of the body. 

Lesson 4: Vocation as a Call to Love 

Emphasize that every vocation has a spousal form and is a definitive way of responding to the call to love. 

Lesson 5: The Domestic Church 

Explain how the spousal meaning of the body is lived in marriage and family life. 

Lesson 6: The Church as the Body of Christ 

Explore how we can understand the Church more fully by seeing her as the Body of Christ. 

Lesson 7: The New Evangelization 

Highlight the connection between the new evangelization and the dignity of the human person. 

 

COURSE 5 Sacraments as Privileged Encounters with Jesus Christ 

The fifth course reflects on how each of the seven sacraments reveal something about who the human person is and are unique expressions of God’s love. 

Lesson 1: Sacraments and the Body 

Note the necessity of and the relationship of the body to the Sacraments, which are expressions of God’s spousal love. 

Lesson 2: Baptism 

Explore how baptism highlights our intrinsic relationality and the gift of receiving faith. 

Lesson 3: Eucharist 

Explain Christ’s spousal gift of self in the Eucharist and the way in which this gift draws us into communion with Jesus and others. 

Lesson 4: Confirmation 

Explore the relationship of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to purity, which is reverence for the person. 

Lesson 5: Reconciliation 

Look at mercy in relationship to the dignity of the human person. 

Lesson 6: Anointing of the Sick - Highlight what the Anointing of the Sick, suffering and illness reveal about 

the human person and our reception of the sacraments. 

Lesson 7: Marriage 

Explain how a sacramental marriage is the fullness of what marriage is, exploring the nature of fidelity and fruitfulness. 

Lesson 8: Marriage and Divorce 

Examine the indissolubility of marriage and its sign of Christ’s love for the Church, while acknowledging the pain of children of divorce. 

Lesson 9: Holy Orders 

Focus on the role of service within the priesthood and the prophetic nature of celibacy for the Kingdom. 

Lesson 10: Embracing a Sacramental View of the World

Explore a sacramental view of the world as seeing creation’s inherent meaning as a gift given in love and generosity by God. 

 

COURSE 6 Life in Jesus Christ 

The sixth course delves into morality relying on the “adequate anthropology” provided by St. John Paul II’s work. The moral life is situated within the loving relationship of God and His creation. 

Lesson 1: The Moral Life as a Response 

Look at the moral life as a response to God’s love and consider what this call says about the human person. 

Lesson 2: The Language of the Body 

Articulate that the language spoken by the body is possible because of its being created by God in love and consider the implications the common view of freedom has for the body. 

Lesson 3: The Dignity of the Body (Chastity) 

Relying on the Theology of the Body, explain chastity as a virtue that involves loving others authentically and not using another as an object. 

Lesson 4: The Dignity of Fruitfulness 

Explore the gift of participating in the coming to be of new life and the way in which violations of fruitfulness (contraception and artificial reproductive technology) undermine the dignity of the human person and of love. 

Lesson 5: The Dignity of Sexual Difference 

Highlight the beauty of “givenness” within creation and the way in which sexual difference is an irreplaceable reminder of what it is to be human and to be called to love. Look at gender confusion and same-sex sexual activity as doubting our givenness. 

Lesson 6: The Dignity of Self 

Reflect on the personal love that God has for each person — including me — and the barriers that might prevent one from believing it. 

Lesson 7: The Dignity of Relationships (Technology) 

Explore the ways in which technology and social media provide challenges to authentically loving and seeing the dignity of others. 

 

COURSE 7 Living as a Disciple of Jesus Christ in Society 

The seventh course explores Catholic-Christian Social Teaching, highlighting the dignity of the human person, relationality and the imprint of creation and redemption on our identity and interaction with others. 

Lesson 1: Who is the Human Person? 

Review and deepen an understanding of the three original experiences, reflecting on how the human person is different from the animals and is called to be more. 

Lesson 2: Truth and Love 

Explore the implications of objective truth, highlighting in particular truth’s relationship with freedom and love. 

Lesson 3: The Family as the Cell of Society 

Explain the importance of the family as the basic cell of society and the primary place in which one learns love, while acknowledging the challenges inherent in family life. Learn the concept of subsidiarity in the context of the family. 

Lesson 4: Structures of Sin 

Look at sin as rejection and doubt of God’s generosity and the way in which sin impacts every person. Conversely, highlight the concept of solidarity, which corresponds to one’s inherent relationality. 

Lesson 5: Suffering and Death 

Examine the connection between original sin and death, while also addressing the redemptive and transformative possibilities of suffering in love. Address the nature of true compassion and the ways in which euthanasia denies a person’s true good. 

Lesson 6: The Dignity of Work 

Explore the topic of work through the lens of the Theology of the Body, including the goodness of work, the relationship of work and identity, and the need for rest. 

Lesson 7: Care of Creation 

Highlight the concepts of “givenness” and “relationality,” particularly as they apply to the human person’s relationship with the world. 

 

COURSE 8 Responding to the Call of Jesus Christ 

The eighth course reflects on the gift-of-self one offers in response to God’s love through a state of life. 

Lesson 1: Being as Gift 

Explore what it means that the life of every human person is a gift and how a vowed state of life is a response to God, the Giver of the gift. 

Lesson 2: Marriage 

Highlight marriage as a freely given gift-of-self that includes suffering and selflessness that is fruitful for the couple, their family and the world. 

Lesson 3: Motherhood and Fatherhood 

As a continuation of the previous lesson, explain how responsible parenthood is a response to God’s generosity and how men and women uniquely and reciprocally love their children and educate them in what it means to be human. 

Lesson 4: The Priesthood 

Explore how the priest is in persona Christi and is called in his very body to live in union with and to reflect Jesus the Good Shepherd. 

Lesson 5: Consecrated Life 

Explain how consecrated life is a spousal gift-of-self to Christ that bears fruit for the Church and the world. 

Lesson 6: The Call to Holiness of the Laity 

Reflect on the way in which all lay people, regardless of if they have entered a state of life, are called to grow in holiness in their everyday lives. 

Lesson 7: Who is God Calling Me to Be? 

Consider what it means to discover the particular way in which God is calling a person to live out the call to love. 

Each lesson includes the following features:

  • Opening Prayer 
  • Brief Powerfully Written Content 
  • Beautiful Photography 
  • Video Testimony 
  • Discussion Questions 
  • Suggested Videos 
  • Suggested Essays / Personal Reflections 
  • Quiz 
  • Additional Resources  

Testimonials
What others are saying about Called to Be More ... 

"I have reviewed the high school curriculum entitled 'Called to be More' and I am pleased to join with other bishops who have conveyed their support for this Theology of the Body resource. Thank you for creating an engaging curriculum for high school students that conveys so well the Church's teaching on human sexuality." 

— The Most Reverend Joseph Kurtz | Archbishop of Louisville 

Called to be More is a robust and very thorough curriculum resource for reaching students and their families in a profound way. Throughout the material teachers, students and parents will be refreshed by its attention to detail, struck by its joyful proclamation of the Gospel and edified by learning universal truths that set the human heart free to love for a lifetime — and into eternity!.” 

— Carlos Tejeda | Director of the Office for Marriage and Family Life Diocese of Springfield, Ohio 

“To date there are only a handful of Theology of the Body resources that articulate and organize St. John Paul’s revolutionary insights into truly catechetical forms. I predict that Emily Macke’s astonishingly beautiful Called to be More will soon be counted among them. 
“Emily’s work is luminous in two senses: her grasp of the deeply nuanced moral imagination of Theology of the Body, and her crisp, winsome, Millenial-oriented writing style.” 

— Fr. Thomas Wray | Former Dir. of the Office of Evangelization and Discipleship Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio  

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Called to Be More Grade 9-12 Theology of the Body 

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This curriculum is part of Rooted: Theology of the Body K-12 Curriculum