I had a wonderful weekend meeting with about 450 catechists in Chicago (How ya doin?) and Austin, Texas (Howdy!)!

At the Chicago Catechetical Conference on Friday, I spoke to a group of about 200 (mostly Catholic school teachers) about 5 steps to dramatically increase their students’ Bible IQ.  I then jumped on a plane and flew to Austin, Texas to do a couple of workshops (about 125 at each one) on the Language of Mystery – bringing catechesis and liturgy together. It was wonderful to meet and speak with so many dedicated catechetical ministers! So a great big HOWDY to all the good folks I met in Austin and a great big HOW YA DOIN to all the great Chicago folks I met on Friday.

P.S.  FYI, the How Ya Doin is kind of a southside Chicago thing. When I was a teenager, the pastor asked me to greet the bishop when his car pulled up at the rectory on the day of confirmation. As I stood there, I realized I didn’t know what to call the bishop: your excellency? your majesty? your immenseness? As I stood there panicking, the car pulled up to a stop and the bishop got out. I extended my hand and out came the only greeting I knew: HOW YA DOIN?

For the first 4 weeks of the program, I was working without an aide. Each time the DRE thought she had someone lined up, they would back out at the last minute. (Further evidence that recruiting catechists and aides is one of the hardest parts of the DREs job!). Finally, last night, I walked into class and there was my new aide. I broke into the biggest smile. Let me tell you why.

2 years ago, I taught along with Patti, and we had a rather difficult group of 8th graders. One young man (you can see where I’m going with this!) in particular was a handful. I’ll call him Bob. Suffice to say, Bob was not exactly the embodiement of piety and reverence as an 8th grader! I recall one time when Patti and I were lamenting our difficulties and Bob’s name came up, I half-jokingly/half seriously said, “Watch, he’ll be the one who comes back as an aide in a few years!”

Lo and behold, when I walked in and saw Bob there, I was absolutely tickled. He is now a sophomore at a Catholic high school (says he loves it there) and is more mature, sociable, and polite than ever. I told him I was delighted to have him as my aide and he looked happy, enthusiastic, and comfortable with the kids as the class went on.

After class, the DRE, Bob, and I were talking and I told them both the above story. We had a good laugh but what was “funny” was that the DRE did not remember that Bob was in my class a couple of years ago. She just happened to bump into him recently and he said he was looking to complete some service hours and wouldn’t mind being an aide. She knew I needed an aide and the connection was made!

The Holy Spirit is clearly at work here!

So, don’t lose hope over those difficult students in your class. They just might return in a few years as your aide, as a fellow-catechist, or even as your DRE! 

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!