One of my students has asked me the following question twice now in 4 weeks: “If we don’t want to be confirmed, we don’t have to right? It’s supposed to be our choice, right?” I’ve told her both times that she is correct but that this is a decision she needs to talk over with her parents. Obivously, there’s something going on there. I hope to find an opportunity to chat with her to see if I can find out what’s going on and what is behind her asking this question. 

Some students DO find themselves in a “do as I say, not as I do” situation with their parents, who insist that they go to religious education while they themselves do not go to Mass regularly. This is very difficult on the child (and doesn’t make for such a great situation for us catechists, either!) who is preparing for the sacraments in a vacuum. On the other hand, parental non-involvement does not preclude the real possibility that this child may have a significant encounter with Jesus Christ in religious education. That, of course, is what we all strive to make possible.

Overall, Week 3 (last night’s class) went very well. Along the way, however, I encountered a few things that I’m not satisfied with and hope to change. Here’s the run-down:

• we began with a brief prayer and I thought I would introduce the idea of the young people sharing petitions - very simply, thanking God for blessings and praying for the needs of others and/or our own needs. I gave a few examples and told them that we would pass a candle around the group. When they received the candle, they could share a petition aloud or hold the candle silently for 5 seconds or so before passing it along. We began with prayers of thanksgiving and not one student prayed aloud (and there was occasional giggling). I told them that they were being shy and encouraged them to share aloud. Next, we offered prayers for the needs of others and/our ourselves and the result was the same! I commented that they may not be used to sharing prayers out loud with others and said we would continue to do this each week and that I hoped they would begin to feel more comfortable in doing so. I’m sure it’s just going to take 1 or 2 brave souls to break the ice!
• We had a nice review of the first 2 weeks and they did well at recalling the BIG IDEAS…one of them even recalling the word INCARNATION from last week to describe the event of Jesus becoming flesh.
• We introduced the night’s topic: the Holy Spirit and talked about what it means to be an ADVOCATE. We talked about how lawyers, doctors, nurses, counselors, etc. were advocates and that Jesus used this word to describe the Holy Spirit. We then listened to a Mariah Carey song (”Anytime You Need a Friend”) to reinforce the idea of what it means to be an advocate and I told them that many of the lyrics of that song can be compared to what the Holy Spirit wants for us:

Anytime you need a friend
I will be here
You’ll never be alone again
So don’t you fear
Even if you’re miles away
I’m by your side

• We next talked about how we can recognize the Holy Spirit in our lives. I showed a brief clip from the movie Ghost that shows people going to a “spiritual advisor” (played by Whoopi Goldberg) who is a con artist. I explained that this is NOT how we Catholics seek to be in touch with the spiritual world. We don’t believe that there is a separation between the spiritual and physical world that requires some mediator (a psychic, etc.) to reach across for us. Rather, Jesus is our mediator and, through the Incarnation, we recognize that the spiritual and physical worlds come together in our hearts, where the Spirit resides.
• We then read from the text book about the Holy Spirit.
• I showed them a TV antenna (rabbit ears!) that I brought in and asked them to explain what it does. They explained that an antenna is receptive to the signal being sent, making it possible for a TV to display a picture (until Feb. 17, 2009, that is!). I talked about how God created us with “human antennae” which makes it possible for us to be receptive to the Holy Spirit - those “antennae” being our mind, will, emotions, imagination, and memories.
• They next went with their little mini-votive candles to their “sacred space” for a guided reflection in which I told them to pay attention to how the Spirit may be speaking to their minds, wills, emotions, imaginations, and memories. Before starting, I needed to relocate a couple of kids whose sacred spaces were just too close to someone else’s.
• With quiet background instrumental music and the lights dimmed, we spent about 15 minutes in reflective prayer, beginning with some breathing exercises and then just imagining Jesus being present with them and talking and listening to him.
• Throughout the prayer, most of the kids were good except for a couple of voices that continued to make comments aloud and or engaged in some giggling (I have a couple of incessant gigglers! Sweet kids but oh do they giggle!). In all, it was pretty quiet though.
• I gathered them together before we left and gave them feedback about their behavior during the prayer and what they need to do in order for this to be a more productive time. I especially talked about the chatter and giggling and how a few of them needed to overcome that.

So, in all, I felt very good about the session even though I spent a lot of energy dealing with typical adolescent behaviors that make this work so challenging. Knowing that these are typical behaviors, however, helps me to feel more patient with them while at the same time challenging them to show more mature behavior. I definitely feel like we’re making progress. I can’t believe that next week marks a full month that we’ve been in session already!

Last night was my first class of the R.E. year and I couldn’t be more delighted with how things turned out! Here are the highlights:

• I arrived to discover that there is no period 1 class (5:30 - 6:45 pm) taking place in my room which means that I can get there nice and early each week and set my room up without rushing!
• I have a very large room this year…no desks…just tables and chairs. This made it very easy for me to re-arrange the furniture, create a “horseshoe” with chairs, set up a little prayer center in the middle, and have all of my supplies in place with plenty of time to spare.
• I greeted each of the kids with a handshake as they entered and asked them their names. They were very polite and sociable.
• They had a palpable sense of curiousity about the setting - no desks, chairs in a semi-circle, Bible, candle, and holy water in their midst, lights slightly dimmed, quiet music playing in the background - that seemed to foster a sense of quiet (either that or they were afraid of me!)
• Our introductions went very nicely…in addition to introducing themselves and sharing a thought or two about their interests (sports, musical instruments, etc.), I had them share the name of the person they most trust in the world (the theme of the class was “We TRUST in the goodness of God). They did this without much hesitation, most naming one of their parents or one of their classmates (which was very nice), while one said “me” referring to himself.
• We had a nice opening prayer in which I read to them their “classroom covenant” (which states the rights and responsibilities of each young person participating in this class) and then had them come forward prayerfully to sign the covenant, bless themselves with holy water, and return to their seats. At that point I prayerfully presented their textbooks to them, calling them forward one at a time by name and saying “May you find God in all things” as I handed them their Finding God textbooks.
• Following the prayer, I invited them to leaf through their books just to get an idea of what lies ahead.
• I introduced the notion of trust and played to them a recording of a song by Linkin Park (”From the Inside”) that summarizes the difficulty that young people have when it comes to trusting, especially after being hurt. They were a bit blown away that their catechist knew who Linkin Park was and actually played one of their songs in class! I told them that they probably won’t hear that song in church on Sunday…they laughed!
• From there, I assigned them a couple of articles from chapter 1 that deal with the concept of faith (trust) in God. Half the group read one article (silently) while the other half read the other article. Then, I paired them up and had them interview one another about what they read.
• We gathered once again as a large group and summarized the key points in the articles, namely, that we are called to place our faith in God whose goodness can be trusted.
• I introduced them to the concept of “sacred space” - they each could find a place in the room to call their own - a space that they will use for prayer and reflective reading. Most chose to sit under one of the many tables! They really got a kick out of this.
• As they sat in their sacred space, I invited them to listen to the song On Eagle’s Wings which is, of course, a song about complete trust in the goodness of God (the antithesis to the Linkin Park song). I also gave them the lyrics to reflect on as they listened. I never expected anyone to sing along, yet a couple of the girls started to sing on the refrain (I heard one say out loud, “I love this song!”). During the next refrain, a number of the boys chimed in but in a sarcastic manner. I paused the song and said, “if you want to sing along, you’ll do so prayerfully. If you’re making fun of the song, don’t sing…just listen.” I resumed the song and the sarcastic singing was gone. Interestingly enough, however, those couple of girls kept right on signing and I can’t be sure but I believe a few other voices joined in!
• When the song was over, I invited them to sit quietly and ask God for the grace they need to trust him. They were nice and quiet for a couple of minutes.
• It was time to go so I invited them back into the semi-circle and had them collect the books and supplies. I told them that they had done very well for the first class and that I looked forward to working witht them this year.
• They left with a great deal of energy and, believe it or not, when they were down the hallway, I heard a few of them break into the refrain of “On Eagle’s Wings!” Not that this singing was even close to being reverent, but I had to laugh to myself that I “got in their heads” which is no easy task!

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for being with me last night and for guiding and inspiring me and my students to encounter you!

Many people, including myself, see great parallels between athletics and the spiritual life. To me, the greatest parallel is that both require discipline. The biggest difference, however, is that, while in athletics, one needs discipline in order to achieve something, in the spiritual life, one needs discipline in order to receive something! Of course, we do not earn or achieve grace as if striving to earn or achieve a gold medal. On the other hand, we can most certainly discipline ourselves in order to become more receptive to the grace and salvation that God is offering to us. Without discipline, we run the risk of allowing obstacles to God’s grace to enter into our lives.

By the time many of us begin teaching religious education classes this Fall, the summer Olympics will already be a “distant” memory. However, we can draw upon the enduring images that come out of the Olympics to inspire our young people to put forth their best efforts to seek the prize that is offered to each of us - salvation in Jesus Christ.

“I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.” -Eric Liddell, Chariots of Fire

“You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It’s hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. You experience elation when the winner breaks the tape - especially if you’ve got a bet on it. But how long does that last? You go home. Maybe you’re dinner’s burnt. Maybe you haven’t got a job. So who am I to say, “Believe, have faith,” in the face of life’s realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me.” If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.” -Eric Liddell, Chariots of Fire

My Year of Paul began with a whimper on June 29, the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles. My wife and I were vacationing in Florida and attended Mass on the day that the Year of Paul began. I was pleased that the priest announced the beginning of this special year and then he set out in his homily to educate folks about St. Paul. Unfortunately, he offered only information…a homily is supposed to be about transformation. The worst part, however was the following:

“We owe a lot to St. Paul. Because of him, we don’t have to follow all of the Jewish laws and customs. For example, we men don’t have to be circumcised. Thank goodness for that! Oh, I guess it doesn’t really matter since I was circumcised as an infant anyway!”

Too much information, Father!

At the Catechetical Ministries Awards Banquet last evening (sponsored by the Archdiocese of Chicago, Office for Catechesis and Youth Ministry), Cardinal George gave the crowd some inside scoop on the Pope’s visit to the U.S. He told us that before the Pope departed, the bishops asked him some questions, one of which was, what his advice was about teaching young people in a culture of secularization. The Pope responded, “Teach them to pray!”

I thought this was a wonderful answer and I appreciated the Cardinal sharing this thought with us catechists. He urged us, in all that we do, to be sure that we teach the young people to pray so that they can enter into a deeper communion with the Lord Jesus.

Amen to that.

Here’s a good one (and it’s a true story).

A DRE friend of mine told me that one of her Confirmandi was ill the day of Confirmation and was unable to attend the celebration. The DRE spoke with the mother of the child on the phone and offered her all of the upcoming opportunities for the child to celebrate the sacrament at neighboring parishes. The mother replied, “Can’t you just send me the certificate?”

Ugh!

What an impoverished understanding of the sacraments! This is just another example of how much work we have to do in terms of catechizing adults.

I like to remind people that, according to Canon Law, each of us has a right to catechesis. When we encounter adult Catholics who have little or no catechesis, rather than blame them, we need to view it as a violation of their rights and we need to do all that we can to see to it that their rights are being protected.

Of course, along with rights comes responsibilities and we need to remind all adult Catholics of their responsibility to seek a full understanding of their faith.

When these rights and responsibilities are embraced, the result is growth in knowledge of the Lord.

Last night was our last class for the year and it was a very nice send-off. The closing Mass was very good and the young people seemed genuinely touched by the little token that I offered them. A number of the 8th grade students also went out for pizza afterwards accompanied by 3 of us catechists.

As it turns out, last week, when I missed class because of my daughter’s illness, my aide, Kris, had the young people make thank you cards for me! What a nice gesture! Here are some of the comments that they wrote in their cards:

• Thank you very much for taking the time to teach me about Jesus.
• Thank you for dealing with us all year. Thank you for volunteering your time to teach us about God. Iliked the way we meditated. I don’t like reading in the book so it was cool that you made PowerPoints.
• Thank you very much for your class this year. I really learned a lot and enjoyed it very much. I liked how we meditated in class. You always came to class knowledgeable and prepared and we really appreciated that. Since you came wanting to be there, most of the class ended up wanted to come. This year we made our confirmation, and I think I was really ready for it. Your class was a lot of fun and it was the best year of CCD I’ve ever had!
• Thank you for the time you spent with us talking about Jesus Christ.
• Thanks for the meditation time.
• Thank you for all the things you have taught me. You taught me things outside the book that no other teacher has done. The meditation helped me pray and spend time with Jesus and God. Thanks for everything.
• Thanks for teaching our class. U really made it fun this year! It went by so fast! So thanx.
• Thank you so much for making my last year of CCD awesome! When I first came in and heard you were one of the authors of the book, I was thinking to myself, “Oh, great, we are going to do nothing but read from the book.” But I was wrong. Even though we used the book at times, this class was really fun. Learning about the history of the church and watching Jesus of Nazareth was very interesting. The meditations were also really cool. Thank you!!

I think I’ll keep doing the meditations, eh? 

Here’s an exchange I recently had with a catechist working in RCIA for children:

Dear Joe, 

I am a catechist teaching RCIA for children.  This is my first time teaching RCIA.  If you could recommend some approaches to answering questions to children grades 3rd through 5th RCIA, I would really appreciate your help.  Here are some of their questions: 

Why do we decorate the church with a barren looking tree during Lent?  Who made God and why aren’t we from a different planet?  What is the difference between a Catholic and a Christian?  

Thank you, Joe!

 

 

What wonderful questions! I just wrote a post this morning about a question one of my 8th graders asked (”Would it have been better if Jesus didn’t die?”) 

This is such a great opportunity for you to be able to work with these young people during such a meaningful time in their lives. You are also very thoughtful to be so concerned with approaching their questions in the most effective manner. How we respond to questions can have a lasting impact on a young person. 

My first thought is to affirm the questions and the questioners. Let them know that they have asked a good question. 

Next, show that you are interested in what they may be thinking. Invite the others in the group to grapple with the question. You can say something like, “That’s a good question that -N- just asked. What do you think? How would you respond to that question?” Let them know that it is good to grapple with issues of our faith and that asking questions is what disciples do…it’s how we learn. 

Now, on to how to address the specific questions you listed: 

• why do we decorate the church with a barren looking tree during Lent? 
   

The Church has long compared the 40 days of Lent to the 40 year journey of Israel in the desert where their faith was tempted. In the same way, Jesus grappled with temptations in the desert for 40 days before beginning his ministry. For us, Lent is our journey through the desert - a barren area - where we face up to our temptations, away from the clutter of everyday life (this is why we give things up during Lent…to clear away the clutter).  

 

• Who made God and why aren’t we from a different planet? 
   

This is one of the wonderful and mysterious things about God - God has no beginning and no end. Nobody made God. God just is. That’s why when Moses asked God what his name was, God said, “I Am Who Am.” This means that God just is. This is a very hard concept for even adults to understand. God is the creator and we are creatures (created by God). The story in Genesis chapter one of how God created the world tells us that before the world came to be, God already existed and that he created all of creation out of love for us. We come from God, not from another planet, because we have an intimate relationship with our creator God. 

• What is the difference between a Catholic and a Christian? 

   

One of my 8th graders asked this on the first night of class this year! Of course, Catholics ARE Christians! The term Christian is a broad term that describes anyone who is a follower of Jesus and has been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For the first one thousand years of the Christian Church, there was only one kind of Christian…anyone who followed Jesus. In the 11th century, the Christian Church became divided between those who followed the leadership of the bishop of Rome (Roman Catholics) and those who followed the leadership of the Patriarch of Constantinople (The Orthodox Church). Then, in the 16th century, the Christian Church became even more divided because of the Protestant Reformation. This means that some Christians chose not to follow the leadership of the bishop of Rome (the pope). These Christians established many different denominations: Lutherans, Calvinists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and so on. They are Christians baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit but they do not follow the leadership of the pope. As Roman Catholics, we are Christians who follow the leadership of the pope and bishops, the successors of the apostles. (Much of this answer will be beyond the younger children but I wanted to provide you with as much as possible and you can adapt it for your various age groups).