Goal for the Life Night:
The goal of the night is to give the teenagers practical advice regarding how to enter into discussions about the faith and the Church precipitated by the book/movie The Da Vinci Code. It is not solely intended to be an apologetic night in which we dismantle each and every one of the obvious errors within the book/movie but, rather, to offer important information and insights regarding how to evangelize as the craze over this work of fiction permeates secular culture.
Life Night at a Glance:
This LIFE Night has a fun environment, a “juvenile” but engaging gather activity, important catechetical points, adoration, and a Send that has solid pastoral direction (video) combined with a “feel good” video presentation that both affirms the teens and honors the ministry. This LIFE Night is an opportunity to evangelize the masses and simultaneously remind the teens that they are the sons and daughters of a God (and Church) who loves them dearly.
* This Night gets into the novel The Da Vinci Code. This work has been surrounded by some controversy regarding claims about Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene, a secret society known as the Priory of Sion, the location and purpose of the Holy Grail, the early Church’s “suppression” of women, the role of Opus Dei, and a number of other ideas that the author leads his reader to believe are historical and/or factual “within” this work.
What is a fact is that this is a work of fiction. If we get too defensive toward the claims, we inadvertently give it far more power than it deserves. At the same time, not addressing the book’s claims, often times (in the minds of teens) appears to coincide with the theory that we have something to hide or are attempting to cover up something. We want to empower our teens to learn more about the actual facts regarding our Savior and His Church and to teach them how to share what is accurate and most important about what we believe.