Skills

Pray the Hail Mary slowly together, noticing its two halves: the first comes straight from Scripture (the angel Gabriel's greeting and Elizabeth's words in Luke 1), and the second is the Church asking Mary to 'pray for us sinners.' Then review from Monday: Why do we call Mary 'Mother of God'? (Because her Son, Jesus, is God.) When we say 'pray for us,' are we worshipping Mary? (No — we are asking her to intercede, as a member of the communion of saints.) This short prayer makes the catechism lesson real.

A VERBAL is a word formed from a verb but used as a different part of speech. The first kind is the PARTICIPLE — a verb form used as an ADJECTIVE (it describes a noun). Present participles end in -ing ('the running water'); past participles usually end in -ed, -en, -t, or other forms ('the broken vase,' 'the lost book'). The key idea: a participle looks like a verb but does an adjective's job. 'The conquering armies swept across Persia.' (Conquering describes armies.) 'Translated into Arabic, the Greek texts were saved.' (Translated describes texts.) A PARTICIPIAL PHRASE is the participle plus any objects or modifiers it carries, and the whole phrase acts as an adjective. 'Fleeing to Spain, the last Umayyad founded a new dynasty.' (The whole phrase describes the Umayyad.) Two cautions. First, do not confuse a participle (adjective) with the main verb of the sentence: in 'The scholars translating texts worked for years,' the verb is 'worked'; 'translating texts' is a participial phrase describing scholars. Second, a participial phrase at the start of a sentence must clearly modify the noun right after the comma, or you get a 'dangling participle' — a common error you will study later. Worked example: 'Built in 786, the mosque still stands.' — 'Built in 786' is a participial phrase modifying 'mosque.'

Few empires in history grew as fast as the early Islamic caliphate. Today you will draw its astonishing reach. Starting from the ARABIAN PENINSULA (where Mecca and Medina sit), Muslim rule spread within a century in two great directions. WESTWARD: across Egypt and all of NORTH AFRICA (the 'Maghreb'), then leaping the Strait of Gibraltar in 711 to conquer most of the IBERIAN PENINSULA — Spain and Portugal — which Muslims called Al-Andalus, with its splendid capital at Córdoba. EASTWARD: through the Holy Land and Syria (capital Damascus under the Umayyads), across Mesopotamia (where the Abbasids later built Baghdad), through PERSIA, and to the borders of India and Central Asia. At its height, this single empire stretched roughly 5,000 miles from the Atlantic coast of Spain to the Indus River. Notice the line of farthest advance into Europe: after crossing into Spain, Muslim raiders pushed north into the Frankish kingdom (modern France), where they were checked by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732 — the figure you will study on Day 4. Drawing this map shows why Christendom felt encircled: Islam now controlled the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean that Rome had once ruled, and the 'mare nostrum' (our sea) was now a contested frontier.

From memory, name the western and eastern limits of the early caliphate (Spain/Al-Andalus and the Indus/India). Then write one original sentence that begins with a participial phrase, and underline that phrase.